The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-01-20
The Number of Dead Found To Be Seventeen
Chiefly Women and Children, Who We're
Crushed and Trampled by the Stronger.
Shocking and CHASTITY Scenes in the Hall
and in the Narrow PassageWay.
Evicted Tenants Who Are Supplied with Cat
tie and Cash-Upper House of the PruS-
sian Diet Tries to Console the Emperor.
Additional Details of the Deadly Crush
Seventeen Lives Lost.


Seventeen Lives Lost.
LONDON, Jan. 19-The hall in Prince street. |
Spitalfelds, whore fatal panic occurred last
night, is a favorite resort for the Jews of that |
part of London. Entertainments have been Civ |
en- there every night for a long time past. Last
evening benefit performance given and
the place was crowded During the progress of the
play. man and woman quarreled in the street
outside and near the main doorway of the hall
The man used violence the woman screamed.
Her cries were heard by a passer-by, who mis-
understood them, and shouted, ''Fire! The
womans screams and the cry of fire" were
heard inside, ana at once created panic, the
audience, numbering five hundred, rising in a
body and rushing pell-mel for the main en-
trance. The audience was almost entirely COM
posed of Jews. The manager of the Hebrew
Dramatic Club. which was giving the entertain
ment, was on the stage when the panic began.
He perceived at once that there was no good rea-
the excitement and to afford all possible
facilities for tine exit of the people. The hall
has number of entrances, and he had them all
thrown wide open and called on the people, when
they would not remain, to divide and use all the
doorways, but they paid no atteation to him. In
fact many of them construed the managers
earnestness into proof that there was fire,
and these increased their exertons to get out
The whole crowd, as il with one impulse, made
for the main entrance It happened that among
those who first reached it were q number Of
women and children who had been occupying
some of the rear seats. They were overborne
by stronger men attempting to pass them, and
as the women and children fell at the doorway,
as stumbling blocks they tripped up others, who
were crushed down by the rush of the frantic
crowd. It took but few moments to empty
the house, and the alarm was SO thorough that
not soul in the entire audience refrained from
the struggle to get out. When the people, after
reaching the street, ascertained the facts of the
situation, a scene of great disorder Of another
kind ensued. caused by the discovery that num-
bers were missing Then a rush back was
made. This, however, was stopped at ~the
main entrance by the police, who had
arrived and assumed control. Seven
teen corpses were found inside the
theatre, near the door. They were all torn.
crushed and disfgured. It was found that of
the dead twelve were women, three were boys,
one was GIRL and the other man. The re-
mains were almost unrecognizable. Eye.wit
nesses say that the way the strong men, who got
uppermost in the struggle at the door, crushed
and trampled on those who fell down in the con-
flict was indescribably ruthless and brutal al
though, of course not willful it beinga supreme
case of everyone for himself"
It is stated that a number of infants, carried
in their mothers arms and clung to through all
the panic, were also crushed or smothered, and
that number of others were fatally injured
The scene during the attempted return of the
crowd, was painful in the extreme. The be-
ing to have their dead restored to them. and the
lamentations OF the women were heartbreakine
The police have been told number of contra
dictory stories about the cause of the panic One
statement is that thieves started the cry of fire
for the purpose of getting opportunity to despoil
the many rich Jewesses in the hall of the costly
jewels they wore on their persons to the enter.
tainment.
The hall to-day resembles a disordered auc-
tion room. Broken furniture, crushed toys,
chidrens hats, broken bottles, orange peel, ac-
tors wigs and shreds of clothing lie scattered
over the floor. There are many blood spots on
the backs Of chairs and on the floor, here and
there; CHASTITY knots of hair are clinging to the
furniture. Several escapes were made through
windows, most Of which were badly smashed.
Several bodies were found at the bottom of the
stone stairs leading to the gallery. Here terri
Bile struggle took place between the front Of the
| crowd rushing from the main floor and the lead
ers of the throng which rushed down the gallery
stairs. The dead lay mostly in two opposing
| rows, the feet of each row close to those of the
other, one row of heads lying toward the gallery
stairway, and the other toward the opposite eide
! of the hall The faces of the dead are distorted
and bear agonized expressions The clothing is
completely torn from the bodies of some.
A little girl, since identified as Eva Marks
was found lying at the bottom of pile of dead
| her lower limbs were bare and the upper part of
| her dress torn to shreds, showing that she had
fought hard for life. Isaac Levy a venerable
was found among the dead. He and his wife
| were regular attendants at the performances
! and always sat near the door It is thought,
| from the position in which his body was found,
| that Levy, instead of fleeing alone when the
panic started. remained to help protect his wife,
| and the ola man was brushed down by the rush
| ing crowd and stamped to death. The wfes
! body lay opposite. The woman was in the prime
| OF life and wore brightly -colored clothes and
quantities of jewelry. Beside her lay little boy
whose knickerbockers and stockings were torn to
+! shreds.
man named Harris Goldberg says he went
| to the gallery of the hail. accompanied by his
wife and family They all sat together. The
| play a melodrama, called. ssThe Spanish
I Gypsy Girl" During the performance some
boys, in order to obtain better view of the
stage. climbed up an exposed gas pipe fixed
| along the wall. This strained the pipe and
started a leak Goldberg placed handkerchief
] ovec the leak, and some one shouted, Turn off
| the meter" This shout was raised simultane-
ously with q cry of alarm from one Of the men
| on the stage The people in the gallery rose
and rushed headlong downstairs. Goldbere's